


Alec's Second Favorite Uncle

by Krit



Series: Mommy’s Little Monsters [4]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Circle Era (Shadowhunter Chronicles), Dysfunctional Family, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Humor, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22447345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krit/pseuds/Krit
Summary: Special memories with Alec and the Morgensterns.
Series: Mommy’s Little Monsters [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560850
Comments: 18
Kudos: 93





	Alec's Second Favorite Uncle

Valentine looked down at his nephew and scrunched his nose, smiling at him. “How ya doin, buddy?” He asked jovially, sitting down on the porch swing. The seven month old squirmed in his arms and made some very disgruntled noises.

“Alec, are you behaving?” Maryse called from the lawn, where she was sparing with Lucian. Jocelyn sprawled out on the porch steps, jeering at them both, trying to make them mess up. His little family. Wife and parabatai. Maryse wasn’t actually his sister, but she may as well be.

“When is he ever?” Valentine responded.

“Guh goo!” Alec shouted. Valentine looked at him again with a raised eyebrow.

“You wanna try that again, buddy?”

“Guh goo!” Alec repeated, and Valentine’s eyes widened a bit.

“Guys! Come here!” He turned to the open window and called into the house. “Robert! Get out here!”

They all gathered around as Valentine grinned at Alec. “I think he’s starting to talk! What’ve you got to say to your Uncle Val, buddy?”

“Guck coo!” Alec exclaimed, flailing his arms.

“Wha-... What is he trying to say?” Jocelyn asked tentatively. “Cuz it sounds...”

“Uck Ooo!”

“Please tell me he’s saying what I think he’s saying!” Lucian pleaded quietly with a huge grin on his face.

“Buck you!” Alec tried to wriggle out of Valentine’s arms, and was scooped up by his laughing mother.

“That’s my boy!” Maryse exclaimed proudly, as everyone on the porch collapsed into laughter.

~*~

Luke’s eyes started to cross as he studied the papers in front of him. They had been going over all of this for an hour, and Luke just wanted to go home and take a bath. The Morgenstern’s basement was clean, but always felt grimy for some reason.

Valentine and Maryse were standing on opposite ends of the table, bickering over logistics. Jocelyn stood across from Luke, rolling her eyes and making faces every few minutes.

Luke cracked his neck and rubbed his eyes. He was tired. He was bored. He was annoyed.

And then a sight brought a smile to his face. A sour faced three year old and a strawberry blonde two year old, came toddling down the steps. None of their parents seemed to notice.

Luke watched as the boys found a chair over in the corner, and slowly dragged it over to the counter on the other side of the room. Alec used the chair to climb up onto the counter, while Jonathan fetched a wooden crate from under the stairs.

Luke crosses his arms and looked around the table at his friends. Surely someone else was seeing this. But no. Jocelyn had joined in the bickering again. None of them saw as Jonathan put the crate on the chair, and Alec took it and put it on the counter.

Luke squinted as he sussed out the boy’s plans. Jonathan had managed to get on top of the chair, but couldn’t quite get himself into the counter. Alec knelt down and grabbed his arms, helping him up.

Luke shook his head and looked at his friends again, incredulous that not one of them had noticed what their children were up to.

Jonathan held onto the crate as Alec got on top of it, opening the cupboard on the wall, and pulling himself up. Standing on the bottom shelf, he started to climb.

“Hey Val?” Luke asked casually. “What’s on the top shelf of that cupboard over there?”

“Hm?” Valentine didn’t even look up from the papers he was sifting through. “Old throwing stars, a couple of daggers, and my back up poison stock. Why?”

“Yeah. Nope!” Luke bolted from around the table and rushed across the room, plucking Alec off the shelves, just as his little hands reached the top. Flopping him over one shoulder, Luke swiped Jonathan off the counter, settling him on the opposite hip. Huffing a laugh, he turned and raised an accusatory eyebrow at the actual parents in the room.

“I’m gonna take these back upstairs. Let me know when you’ve sorted all that bullshit out. And you might wanna lock up those cabinets.” Feeling vindicated at their shocked and guilty faces, Luke headed up the stairs. _“Great parenting, guys!”_ He called back to them.

~*~

Jocelyn’s ears were ringing. Her husband was _still_ talking. She was starting to get a tension headache. She looked around at all the similarly aggravated faces around her. All eight top ranking circle members were gathered in her living room for what started as a general tactics meeting, and had devolved into a three hour rant consisting of Valentine basically repeating himself in a dozen different ways. He was so full of shit sometimes. He was making less and less sense every day. When he admitted to experimenting on her and their son, he confessed that he’d started on himself. Jocelyn wondered if he didn’t give himself brain damage.

Alec and Jonathan were tearing through the first floor of the house. It was less of a game of tag, and more a competition to see who could crash into, and bounce off of, the most walls and furniture in the shortest amount of time.

Maryse was curled up on one of the easy chairs, with Izzy asleep in her arms. Her eyes looked a little glassy, like she wasn’t quite present anymore. She’d checked out at least an hour ago.

As the boys zipped through the living room again, Alec suddenly stopped. He looked around the room, and then went over to the couch. Climbing up, he stood next to Valentine, and tugged on his sleeve.

“Uncle Val?”

“Yeah, buddy?” Valentine asked absently, turning to look at him. Alec put his little hands on either side of Valentine’s face and stared at him with his most intense and serious look.

“Nobody fucking cares.” He said pointedly, as though he was concerned that his uncle hadn’t realized that everyone had stopped listening to him.

Luke let out a sharp laugh as Jocelyn tried to choke back a cackle, and Maryse blinked rapidly, jumping up from her seat.

“Nap time!” She declared, shifting Izzy onto one hip, and scooping Alec onto the other. “Joss, you wanna grab Jonny?” She asked as she moved swiftly past her, towards the stairs.

Jocelyn started at the shocked, confused, and mildly furious look on her husband’s face for a moment more before nodding. “Yeah, we’re right behind you!” She couldn’t keep the laughter out of her voice as she collected her own toddler and followed.

~*~

Maryse put the storybook away and smoothed the blankets over her half asleep toddler. Not really a toddler anymore. Nearly four years old, but still her baby.

“Goodnight Alec. Mama loves you.” She said quietly, kissing his forehead. She was about to stand up when a little hand grabbed her shirt. She turned back to her son to see him staring at her with wet eyes and a worried twist to his face.

“Mama?”

“What is it, baby?”

“Is Uncle Val’s brain broken?”

Maryse started at him for a moment. He looked scared. He was never scared.

“Sweetheart, what are you talking about? Uncle Val is fine.” She could hear the crack in her voice. She didn’t quite believe herself. But it was fine. He was fine. A little more erratic these days. Stressed. But they all were. It was fine. He was fine.

“He’s not!” Alec insisted. “He’s angry all the time. And he says the same stuff over and over, and it doesn’t ever make sense. Not just to me! Everybody always looks sad and tired when he talks. When he smiles, it looks mean. He doesn’t laugh anymore. He doesn’t blink anymore.” He sniffled, tears fell down his cheeks and Maryse wiped them away.

“There’s a lot of grown up stuff going on right now.” She said carefully. “And we _are_ all tired. And Uncle Val is..... dealing with a lot. He’s in charge of everything. There’s a lot of pressure...” She trailed off, trying to figure out how to rationalize her son’s concerns. She was running out of excuses.

“Izzy doesn’t let him hold her.” Alec stated. “She’s loves being held, and she’ll let anybody. But when he tries to pick her up, she screams and tries to get away. Jonny won’t go near him anymore...” Alec shook his head. “I don’t like him anymore either.” He said quietly.

“Alexander!”

“He’s scary now!” Alec cried. “He’s _mean_. Even when he’s being _nice_. And when he talks to me, or tries to pick me up, I get scared, and my belly hurts like I’m sick.” His face crumpled as he dissolved into sobs, and Maryse gathered him into her lap, holding him tight.

“Shhh. It’s okay, baby.” She kissed the top of his head as he sobbed in her arms. “Everything is okay. It’s all just grownup bullshit. You don’t have to worry about _any_ of it, okay?” She rubbed his back and kissed him again. “It’s okay. Let me worry about all that, alright? It’s okay. Mama’s gonna take care of everything.” She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, rocking him gently. “Everything is okay.” She whispered. “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.” She kept repeating it even after he’d finally fallen asleep. Just trying to make herself believe it.

**Author's Note:**

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